114. Morality of Marriage Act Determined
by Nature of the Act and of the Subjects

By Pope John Paul II

1. The reflections we have thus far made on human love
in the divine plan would be in some way incomplete if we did not try to see
their concrete application in the sphere of marital and family morality. We want
to take this further step that will bring us to the conclusion of our now long
journey, under the guidance of an important recent pronouncement of the
Magisterium, Humanae Vitae, which Pope Paul VI published in July 1968. We
will reread this significant document in the light of the conclusions we have
reached in examining the initial divine plan and the words of Christ which refer
to it.

2. "The Church teaches as absolutely required that in any use whatever of
marriage there must be no impairment of its natural capacity to procreate human
life" (Humanae Vitae 11). "This particular doctrine, often expounded by
the Magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection,
established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the
unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent
to the marriage act" (Humane Vitae 12).

3. The considerations I am about to make concern especially the passage of
HumanaeVitae that deals with the "two significances of the
marriage act" and their "inseparable connection." I do not intend to present a
commentary on the whole encyclical, but rather to illustrate and examine one of
its passages. From the point of view of the doctrine contained in the quoted
document, that passage has a central significance. At the same time, that
passage is closely connected with our previous reflections on marriage in its
dimension as a (sacramental) sign.

As I said, since this is a central passage of the encyclical, it is obvious that
it constitutes a very important part of its whole structure. Therefore, its
analysis must direct us toward the various components of that structure, even if
it is not our intention to comment on the entire text.

A promised fidelity

4. In the reflections on the sacramental sign, it has
already been said several times that it is based on the language of the body
reread in truth. It concerns a truth once affirmed at the beginning of the
marriage when the newlyweds, promising each other "to be always faithful...and
to love and honor each other all the days of their life," become ministers of
marriage as a sacrament of the Church.

It concerns, then, a truth that is always newly affirmed. In fact, the man and
the woman, living in the marriage "until death," re-propose uninterruptedly, in
a certain sense, that sign that they made—through the liturgy of the
sacrament—on their wedding day.

The aforementioned words of Pope Paul VI's encyclical concern that moment in the
common life of the spouses when both, joining each other in the marriage act,
become, according to the biblical expression, "one flesh" (Gn 2:24). Precisely
at such a moment so rich in significance, it is also especially important
that the language of the body be reread in truth. This reading becomes the
indispensable condition for acting in truth, that is, for behaving in
accordance with the value and the moral norm.

Adequate foundation

5. The encyclical not only recalls this norm, but also
seeks to give it adequate foundation. In order to clarify more completely
that "inseparable connection, established by God...between the unitive
significance and the procreative significance of the marriage act," Paul VI
writes in the next sentence: "The reason is that the marriage act, because of
its fundamental structure, while it unites husband and wife in the closest
intimacy, also brings into operation laws written into the actual nature of man
and of woman for the generation of new life" (Humanae Vitae 12).

We note that in the previous sentence, the text just quoted deals above all with
the significance of marital relations. In the following sentence, it deals with
the fundamental structure (that is, the nature) of marital relations. Defining
that fundamental structure, the text refers to "laws written into the actual
nature of man and of woman."

The passage from the sentence expressing the moral norm, to the sentence which
explains and justifies it, is especially significant. The encyclical leads one
to seek the foundation for the norm which determines the morality of the acts of
the man and the woman in the marriage act, in the nature of this very act, and
more deeply still, in the nature of the subjects themselves who are performing
the act.

Two significances

6. In this way, the fundamental structure (that is,
the nature) of the marriage act constitutes the necessary basis for an
adequate reading and discovery of the two significances that must be carried
over into the conscience and the decisions of the acting parties. It also
constitutes the necessary basis for establishing the adequate relationship of
these significances, that is, their inseparable connection. Since "the marriage
act..."—at the same time—"unites husband and wife in the closest intimacy" and
together "makes them capable of generating new life," and both the one and the
other happen "through the fundamental structure," then it follows that the human
person (with the necessity proper to reason, logical necessity) must read at
the same time the "twofold significance of the marriage act" and also the "inseparable
connection between the unitive significance and the procreative significance
of the marriage act."

Here we are dealing with nothing other than reading the language of the body in
truth, as has been said many times in our previous biblical analyses. The moral
norm, constantly taught by the Church in this sphere, and recalled and
reconfirmed by Paul VI in his encyclical, arises from the reading of the
language of the body in truth.

It is a question here of the truth first in the ontological dimension
("fundamental structure") and then—as a result—in the subjective and
psychological dimension ("significance"). The text of the encyclical
stresses that in the case in question we are dealing with a norm of the natural
law.